Why You Need to Eat at The Hightower in Austin

The Hightower in Austin is the neighborhood spot that won’t break the bank.

Welcome to Elevator Pitch, in which we invite the chefs, owners and other boldfaced names behind some of the country’s most exciting new restaurants to tell us why their ventures are worthy of our dining dollars.

Austin’s restaurant scene is white hot right now, but The Hightower, recently opened in burgeoning East Austin, has humbler aspirations. Chad Dolezal and Victor Farnsworth—of the shuttered El Arbol—have positioned the restaurant as a neighborhood place, with an easy, affordable menu that includes things like boudin sausage and crispy fried smelt. Dolezal tells us about how he uses less ubiquitous ingredients to keep costs down and the cooks engaged.

"For us, a neighborhood restaurant is a place where you can get together with friends comfortably and not blow out your bank account on food and drinks. I saw Hightower as an opportunity to use the same techniques I used at restaurants with a higher price point, but with ingredients we could deliver at a lower cost, like pork jowl instead of pork belly and bay scallops instead of sea scallops. It makes things more interesting for us in the kitchen and we believe that translates to the guest. It’s a privilege to be cooking in Austin right now; I want this to be a place where people are welcome and feel they have gotten something great out of the time and money they spend with us.”